Soaring Drug Prices and Payment Delays Severely Restrict Healthcare Access in Iran

Patients across Iran are encountering severe financial hurdles and supply shortages when seeking essential medical treatments, as rising drug costs, currency depreciation, and international transaction delays put heavy strain on the country’s healthcare system.

Healthcare professionals report that medical costs have far outpaced average incomes. Iran’s monthly minimum wage for workers covered by labor law stands at 16.6 million tomans. In comparison, a single session of chemotherapy can cost approximately 100 million tomans, or roughly $530. Specialized medications have also seen drastic price differences; an Iranian-produced version of the cancer drug Keytruda costs around 70 million tomans, while imported Indian versions can reach 300 million tomans. Monthly costs for a four-pen prescription of NovoRapid insulin after insurance reimbursement have increased from roughly 280,000 tomans to about 1.1 million tomans.

Broad price increases have affected various standard medications. According to figures published by the IRGC-affiliated Tasnim News Agency, one domestic pharmaceutical company increased prices across 82 products by an average of 120 percent. Specific hikes included Donepezil rising by roughly 543 percent, clarithromycin by about 308 percent, amoxicillin by around 115 percent, and certain acetaminophen and diphenhydramine syrups by about 135 percent.

Hassan Nayeb Hashem and Hamid Hemmatpour, Iranian physicians based in Austria, warned that these price surges force patients to delay, alter, or abandon required treatments. Nayeb Hashem noted that for many conditions, substitute treatments do not exist, warning that “the most serious risk is premature death.” Hemmatpour noted an increasing reliance on informal cross-border supply chains, raising concerns about counterfeit, expired, or improperly refrigerated drugs.

Iranian officials present differing views on the operational bottlenecks. Mehdi Pirsalehi, head of Iran’s Food and Drug Administration, stated that international banking transfers slowed sharply following the start of recent military conflict, nearly stopping for one to two months. Conversely, Central Bank of Iran Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati stated that foreign currency allocated for medical supplies during the first five months of the current Iranian year was 30 percent higher than during the same period in the previous year.

Background

Although humanitarian goods and medicines are technically exempt from international banking sanctions, restrictions on international financial transactions make it difficult for Iranian entities to complete cross-border payments for pharmaceutical supplies. Iran’s healthcare sector also struggles with internal economic factors, including inflation, a weakening local currency, high domestic production costs, and delayed reimbursement payments from national insurers. Pharmaceutical supply chain disruptions have also impacted other nations globally in recent years due to post-pandemic manufacturing challenges.